Fox News host Martha MacCallum, an expert at professionalism, calmly put teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten in her place for disrespecting her during an interview Tuesday.
The two were speaking on Fox News’ “The Story” when Weingarten slammed school choice and argued that the true solution to America’s education epidemic is money, money, money.
MacCallum didn’t buy this narrative one bit.
“So what you’re saying is if we can find other areas in the country where the proficiency levels are also abysmal and should be embarrassing to any education organization, then we can start to make assessments and say, ‘Oh it’s because of choice,’ or ‘Oh it’s because of money?’” she said. “We know that money doesn’t equate a better outcome.”
Watch what happened next below:
Randi Weingarten: “Martha, Martha, Martha — sweetheart, sweetheart, listen to me.”
McCallum: “Please don’t call me sweetheart.”
Weingarten: “…My bad.”
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) April 22, 2025
Instead of answering the question, Weingarten started calling MacCallum sweetheart.
“Martha, Martha, Martha, sweetheart, sweetheart, listen to me,” she said. “It actually does.”
“Please don’t call me sweetheart,” MacCallum then calmly pushed back.
“I’m sorry, my bad,” Weingarten replied.
Elsewhere in the interview, the two spoke about a Supreme Court case involving parents who’d like to opt their children out of learning LGBT-themed content at school.
MacCallum noted that books that preach that people can just magically change their gender are going to “freak out” kids and their parents.
“You don’t want a child to hear a book read to the whole classroom and go home and say, ‘Why am I being taught that I was born a girl but that was just a guess?'” she said. “I mean, that is going to freak out some children.”
“They’re going to be very confused at 4, 5, and 6 years old, and I know that you said you don’t agree with reading this in the classroom, but I’m saying this is the problem. And then that same kid can’t read and is pushed all the way to 8th grade, and they still can’t read,” she added.
Weingarten, to her credit, admitted that schools should have an obligation to notify parents beforehand about controversial books.
“So Martha, I suspect that you and I agree on more than we don’t,” she said. “I know you don’t believe me, but what I’m saying to you is that I saw that case, and if you had not socialized books with parents and a book that may be controversial and you talk to the parents of your kids in that classroom, that’s gonna be a problem regardless of what’s in the book.”
“And look, that was a problem. Look at ‘Catcher in the Rye,’ think about ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ think about other books out of different eras, that’s a problem. You have to actually spend time, as a schoolteacher or a school principal, with parents before you end up talking about issues that some people will think is controversial,” she added.
Watch part one of the full interview below:
(Video Credit: Fox News)
Later in the interview, MacCallum complained that she’s far more concerned about kids not being able to read or write than she is about them expressing their “full selves,” whatever that means.
“I’m honestly less concerned with them being their full selves than I am with them being able to read and write and do math,” she argued. “And that is the biggest problem that we face in our schools today, and if I talk to one more teacher who tells me that they are not allowed to hold a child back who cannot read …”
“I agree with you, I agree with you!” Weingarten then chimed in. “You need both, you need both!”
Watch part two of the full interview below:
(Video Credit: Fox News)
The problem, of course, is that while Weingarten eagerly professed on Tuesday that she agreed with MacCallum, her rhetoric and actions elsewhere have not matched-not remotely.
Weingarten has repeatedly and habitually lent her support to the most destructive policies, including school lockdowns and mask/vaccine mandates.
In addition, she’s called parents who attend school board meetings to complain “racists” and “un-American,” she’s explicitly said that parents don’t have the right to “shape their kids’ school curriculum,” and she’s repeatedly gotten political by lashing out at so-called “right-wing extremists.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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